Hyperspace
Hyperdimensional space, colloquially known as hyperspace, and formerly known as α-β space for a short amount of time, is a dimensional superdomain of alternate space-time, consisting of eleven non-visible dimensions, commonly used for superluminal travel. Transitions from one point to another through hyperspace are known as "jumps". Ships that perform transportations through hyperspace are required hyperdrives in order to access the alternate plane and conduct travel. History Hyperspace was first accessed by a human vessel unintentionally during the initial phases of the Interplanetary War, before being exposed to the foreign physics of the alternate space-time and consequently being disaggregated into elementary particles. It was believed to be a deadly Bermuda Triangle-esque zone until 2201, when the α-β joint investigation team sent by the UN finally came to consensus about the origin of the "anomaly". It was subsequently declared a safe zone. Although confirmed and previously speculated for nearly two centuries to exist, hyperspace's physics and structure were still nearly entirely alien to humanity. To discover the way the UNN vessels managed to access hyperspace and use it as means of transportation, the United Nations decreased its military budget, upping SECA's budget by nearly trillion UNC, to which another one hundred million UCR per month were added. After one more year of conducting experiments, scientists at the Salt Lake City megalaboratory were able to send five atoms of helium through to hyperspace. Although the quantity was extremely small when compared to a starship, progress fastened. Only one month later, five metric tons of iron were sent to hyperspace. At the dawn of 2203, humanity's capabilities regarding sending matter into hyperspace raised to about a hundred thousand metric tons, which was sufficient even for larger military vessels, such as the UNN Icarus. However, one problem was still not solved: protection. Hyperspace was heavily brutal to foreign matter, its physics easily vanquishing any matter that attempted transit through it. SECA space engineers were able to develop quantum fields strong enough to maintain the ship and its passengers aggregated and fully healthy. As such, the first hyperspace test was scheduled for late 2203, with a primitive hyperdrive. The test would later prove to be a success. However, speeds through hyperspace turned out to be smaller than anticipated when translated to regular space-time (only about fourteen times greater than lightspeed, exponentially lower than the anticipated two hundred), which was later discovered to be the cause of the imperfect quantum field around the ship performing travel. Probes were later sent through hyperspace to the nearest planetary systems, colonization following soon after. Currently, hyperspace is extremely frequented, considering the massive amount of inter-system transportation. Structure, access and emergence Hyperspace is the higher intertwined dimensional correspondent of the quotidian four-dimensional universe. The two planes exist in perfect parallelism with each other. However, access from one to the other is very strict, requiring an elevated degree of knowledge and an immense number of calculations for safe transitions. Hyperspace can also be imagined by making allusion to the second spatial dimension. If regular four-dimensional (three spatial and one temporal) space-time were to be associated with a flat piece of paper, then hyperspace could be the result of that same paper being crumpled into a ball, therefore allowing for much shorter distances between objects by higher dimensional routes, impossible in normal space-time. As mentioned before, hyperspace is perfectly entwined with our physical plane of existence to the extent that phenomena in one realm can affect the other, and with sufficiently sophisticated equipment, transitions between the two forms of space-time are possible. Because of its "superiority" when compared to our universe, hyperspace is both non-Einsteinian and non-Euclidean, possessing different laws of physics harmful to regular matter. Due to its different laws of physics, times, masses, positions or velocities in hyperspace are impossible to accurately measure based on the standards and general implications of the regular plane. Ordinary matter cannot safely exist in hyperspace unaided, disaggregation happening relatively instantaneously after access into the realm is performed. Therefore, ships traveling in hyperspace are shielded by carefully-tuned quantum fields which wrap them in envelopes of normal space-time. Access into hyperspace is possible by constructing artificially sustained wormhole-esque bridges, which require exotic matter for stability. The ruptures are created by using cyclic particle accelerators to generate microscopic black holes. Because of their low mass, Hawking radiation gives them a lifetime of around a nanosecond before they evaporate into useless thermal energy. In that nanosecond, the hyperdrive manipulates them into forming a coherent rupture between normal space and hyperspace. Time dilation and other relativistic effects Time dilation is abolished and meaningless for a ship traveling through hyperspace, as any relativistic effects are incapable of occurring because of the different physics of the plane. Because of the multitude of dimensions, otherwise impossible routes between two points allow a ship to travel massively faster-than-light relative to normal space, allowing for "shortcuts".